The Gangster's Angel

Vallen

Vallen

—

It sucked big time, my father sent me to do his dirty work again. Some small time loser who not only owed my father a lot of money, but who also once worked for him. He was mostly a nobody, but that wouldn’t look good, even letting a small time scumbag get away with betraying you.

I really didn’t have the patience for this, but I also wasn’t given much of an option. You didn’t question my father, you simply said yes. I got in the car with a couple of the guys that I trusted most. Josh and Derik have been my friends since we were kids. We did school together and we trained together. They were almost as feared as I was, except I had a reputation of being soulless. I didn’t care for anyone’s sob story.

I was sitting in the back by myself going through the file that my father had given me. Josh and Derik were both up front. I liked my space. The file was on a John Cooper, Honestly, it looks like the loser had gone completely down hill from when he was working with my father. His wife had passed away several years ago, his son was worked for us, so there was very little contact there. It looks like he had a stepdaughter from his late wife.

We pulled up to the house and it was dark. Even so, I could see that the owner had not been taking care of it at all. The weeds were overgrown and the paint was chipping.

“Val, we’re here,” said Josh as he was getting out of the car.

I got out and the three of us stood there for a second checking everything out. A couple more black cars pulled up with more of my father’s men. Looks like he really wanted to teach this guy a lesson.

The three of us walked in and the other men went around the house to make sure no one got in or out.

When we walked in, the whole house reeked. Smelled of vomit and dust. John wasn’t hard to find, he was passed out on the couch. From the looks of it completely wasted.

“Go wake him up,” I said to Derik.

Derik walked over to him and dumped a glass of water on his head. John shot up and looked around the room. When his eyes settled on me the rage seemed to settle down and replaced with fear.

“Well John, I’m sure you know why we are here?” I questioned him.

“And you are?” He spat at me.

“Who am I?” I laughed darkly. “I am the man that is going to be deciding your fate tonight.”

John’s eyes got really big before he started swearing. I motioned for Josh and Derik to hold him down. He took a few swings at them but they ended up restraining him after a short and pathetic fight.

“Listen, I was planning on paying you back, I just needed a little more time,” John pleaded.

Gone was the tough guy who thought he could fight us. I sat in front of him and pulled out his file.

“So John, you used to work for my father until you decided that a rival paid you better? You sold out a few of our men, supposedly your friends at the time. Luckily no one was injured, and my father wasn’t implicated at all.. otherwise, you would probably have been dead a long time ago.” I told him lowly.

I walked over to him and back handed him. “You were given a way out once already. But you decided to test your fate and steal money?“

“No, no, no, I have the money, or at least most of it, I just have to get it,” he whined.

“Then this could be your lucky day,” I told him dryly. “Where’s the money?”

“Upstairs, it’s hidden in my stepdaughter’s room, she’s always taking my money,” he stammered.

“Lead the way then,” I said as I motioned for him to get up.

“We went upstairs, and entered a room. I was a little surprised when we walked into it. It was a girl’s room. It had some pink bedding and some stuffed animals. Wasn’t what I was expecting to be seeing in this man’s house. It was probably the cleanest room here.

“Umm, let me just.. it’s got to be here somewhere.” He said frantically.

He started tearing through the room. Throwing clothes and furniture everywhere. After about twenty minutes of watching the show that he was putting on, I decided that it was time to put an end to this game.

“Bring him back downstairs,” I told my guys.

I could hear him trying to fight them off, but there was no way he was a match for both Josh and Derik.

When we got to the living room, he was a little more beat up than when we had left the bedroom. Looks like he tried a little too hard to get away.

“Since you don’t have the money, I think you need a little reminder of who exactly you are messing with,” I nodded to them and they smacked him around for a little bit.

“I’m feeling a little charitable right now, I’ll give you a week to come up with the money. Just remember, next time we won’t be visiting you,” I said to him.

I could see him visible gulp. He nodded his head. I knew what he was thinking. They all thought that they could get away. They thought they could run and we would never find them. They have all been mistaken.

I nodded to Josh and Derik and went to leave the house. I could hear things breaking and John shouting as I left. Before I had walked out the door I saw a picture, it had a woman and a girl in it, along with John and Alex, when he was much younger. They all looked happy. I didn’t have childhood pictures like this. I glanced at a couple more photos and saw a more recent one only it didn’t have the woman in it. Most likely she was the late wife.

The smiles were gone in this photo. You could see that John was a drunk at that point. Alex was no longer a carefree child, this was probably when he started working for us. Then there was the girl, she wasn’t little anymore, she wasn’t happy. She had something in her eyes that drew me in.

I put the picture back down and left the house. I enjoyed the night. Less people and less noise. I got in the car and waited for Josh and Derik to come to the car.

When they finally came out, they got in the car quietly. Started up the car and headed back to my place. When we were driving I saw a familiar car, it was Alex’s car. He shouldn’t have been in the area. We never send family to deal with family. You never know if they will end up flipping on you. I told Josh to pull over around the corner.

“Derik, I need you to go back to the house. I saw Alex’s car in the street. He shouldn’t be here. I need you to check out what’s going on, make sure that we can still trust him. If not, you can go ahead and take care of the situation,” I told him.

Derik got out of the car and headed back to the house. I told him to let me know as soon as he found out what was going on. Now we just wait and see.